New Car Sales in September UP 13.7% – best sellers Kia Sportage, Ford Puma and Nissan Qashqai

New car registrations in September rose by 13.7%, with sales of electric cars rising by 29.1%. The top seller was the Kia Sportage.

New car sales in September – a traditionally strong plate-change month – provided a boost for the industry with numbers up by 13.7% to 312,891, the best September figures since 2020, with Fleet sales doing the heavy lifting with a 16.9% jump and Private sales up by 8.9%.

Thanks in part to the Electric Car Grant, sales of electric cars had a very good month, up by 29.1% to 72,799, with PHEVs up by 56.4% (obviously with no ECG help) and HEVs up 15.3%, meaning ‘electrified’ cars officially accounted for 50.8% of all registrations.

But break that down a bit, and electric cars (BEVs) accounted for a market share of 23.3% with non-BEVs making up 76.7% of the market.

Mike Hawes, SMMT CEO, said,

Electrified vehicles are powering market growth after a sluggish summer – and with record ZEV uptake, massive industry investment is paying off, despite demand still trailing ambition. The Electric Car Grant will help to break down one of the barriers holding back more drivers from making the switch – and tackling remaining roadblocks, by unlocking infrastructure investment and driving down energy costs, will be crucial to the success of the industry and the environmental goals we share.

The top three best-sellers for the month were the usual Kia Sportage, Ford Puma and Nissan Qashqai, but in at number four was the Jaecoo 7 and at number six the BYD  Seal U, as new Chinese brands beat the VW Golf and Volvo XC40 in the rankings.